Windows 7 Upgrade Chart

Here’s a chart which provides at a glance view of which current version of Windows can be upgraded to which version of Windows 7. This chart was provided by Microsoft when asked by Walt Mossberg. Thanks Microsoft , thanks Walt !

Please note that, only the green box saying ‘In-place Upgrade’ will upgrade keeping all your files,settings, programs as it is been in the current Windows version.

 (click on the chart to get a bigger view for more details)

While the blue box of ‘Custom Install’ (clean Install) gives you the option to either completely replace your current OS or install Windows 7 on specific drive or partition you select. You can also do a custom install if you do not have any OS or if you want to do a dual/multiboot on your system.

Windows Easy Transfer and Windows 7 Upgrade advisor are useful tools that can assist the upgrade. For more details about these tools, one can check http://windows.microsoft.com/upgrade

Users of Windows XP can also check this- Step-By-Step: How To "Upgrade" from Windows XP to Windows 7 by Scott Hanselman. Where Windows XP users can migrate using these steps to Windows 7.